Legislation in the United States of America, namely, the Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC) Act, requires that certain telephones manufactured or imported in the country be compatible with telecoil-equipped hearing aids (a telecoil is a small coil of wire designed to improve the sound quality experienced by a hearing impaired user while using a HAC-compliant telephone). The telecoil generates an electrical signal upon being subjected to a varying magnetic field produced by the HAC-compliant telephone; the electrical signal generated in the telecoil is transformed by the hearing aid into an acoustic signal, which is provided to the user. In order for mobile communication devices to be HAC-compliant, they have to include special circuitry and a coil that can generate the varying magnetic field signal that is detected by the telecoil of the hearing aid. Such coils can be costly and typically take up a lot of space in the mobile communication device.
Further, there is a desire to provide mobile communication devices with electromagnetic induction charging capabilities. In order to do so, the mobile communication devices need to be equipped with a dedicated charge coil and related circuitry that can generate a charge current upon being subjected to an electromagnetic induction charge signal.
Improvements in HAC-compliant mobile communication devices and in mobile communication devices that can be charged by electromagnetic induction are therefore desired.